Nate Paul pleads not guilty to wire fraud

Troubled Austin developer Nate Paul continues to fight the mounting legal challenges stacked against him. 

The World Class Holdings CEO has pleaded not guilty to four wire fraud charges, filed last week, which were piled on top of the previous eight counts of making false statements to lending institutions, the Austin Business Journal reported. 

Paul, who once controlled one of Austin’s largest real estate empires, waived in-person arraignment, originally scheduled for November 16, for the latest federal charges.

In the recent wire fraud allegations, prosecutors claim that Paul sent false statements to limited partnership collaborators. The charges accuse him of inflating bank balances, understating owed amounts and unlawfully diverting funds from the partnerships to support his other business ventures. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Lane accepted Paul’s request, setting the stage for another legal saga surrounding the high-profile real estate figure.

Paul’s alleged misdeeds date between 2011 and 2019. In one instance, he allegedly reported that his company had over $591,000 in operating cash, when its bank actually had just $2,707. Another dramatic falsification allegedly occurred in 2017, when he reportedly had $538,850 in operating cash, but his accounts only held $20,685, according to the indictment.

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Judgment Day

Paul’s downward spiral started when the FBI raided his home and office in 2019. He has since grappled with a plethora of lawsuits, bankruptcies and foreclosures. Paul was also at the center of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial, in which Paxton was accused of accepting bribes from Paul in exchange for legal favors. 

—Quinn Donoghue